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Yahoo! Releases Firefox version of Toolbar
kidlinux writes "Yahoo started offering a beta version of its toolbar for the open source browser Firefox on Microsoft Windows on Wednesday, with versions for Linux and MacOS X following 'shortly.' I think it's safe to say most people use Google in their Firefox toolbar search field. Yahoo probably wants to get their foot in the door before it's too late. It would be interesting if this was a result of user demand. And apparently this follows Amazon's Firefox toolbar, which actually is a result of user demand."
Everyone knows that Firefox is a great tool for the community (well, everybody who uses Firefox, anyway). What the Firefox people should try to in their marketing, though, is by showcasing how their openness can help corporations. If such toolbars could be easy as hell to make, a lot of companies with an online presence out there would be willing to give it a shot. Good for the company who has an easy way to search their products, good for firefox for being the middleman, good for the consumer who wants to search those products, and no harm to everybody else since you don't HAVE to install the toolbar...
Let's see, Firefox already does the first two, and the third is arguably useful. The "anti-spy" feature doesn't seem all that useful for Firefox, since it's not easy to accidentally install spyware via XPI. I think Gator has more useful features. Am I missing something?
Great to see many companies endorsing Firefox and supporting it!
But if the toolbars are not opensourced, then I will not touch them. Sorry to sound like a troll.
The significance I think which is going unnoticed is that someone thinks it is worth it to support something other than Internet Explorer. Perhaps, this can spread?
I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person that I'm preaching to.
Click on the G on the search bar a choose Yahoo. Done.
It's probably more to hide the built in Google search that Firefox has.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Has it occurred to anyone that the only reason Yahoo! might release a search bar could be so that the lack one can't be used against them? I know this sounds stupid, but hearing a user say "I use Google instead of Yahoo! Search because Yahoo! doesn't have a toolbar" is a likely reason enough for Yahoo! to release an inferior search toolbar. Just so they can say they have one too.
It's a feature contest. Neither one wants to be the one with the less features.
Aero
Yahoo! -- Now with more stupid, poorly-written, inferior features!
Sidenote: I am a regular Yahoo! Mail user.
Please stop hurting America -- Jon Stewart
This isn't about providing a service to existing users, many of whom are, on average, probably a little more savvy than the average internet user. It's about getting new users who are used to using IE.
Exactly, I've been holding off on switching my parents secretly to Firefox for a long time now. Why? Because they use Yahoo! Toolbar for IE. It would be an obvious switch, and I don't want it to be that obvious for them. With this toolbar, however, I think I could secretly swap browsers without them even noticing.
They are very conservative, and they think I'm crazy when I mention that there are other products besides ones that Microsoft makes. They are completely oblivious to almost everything, and to a certain extent think if they stray away from their daily routine, they are breaking the law in some way (yeah, I know)...
They don't realize how much freedom actually exists in the world, and it's scary at times to think what it would be like to live like them.
Also, remove the Solitaire and all the other games because they are not productive to work.
After that, uninstall Microsoft Office and install OpenOffice.
I mean it is not like Yahoo! Search (based on Altavista and Inktomi's algorhithm) returns relevant result or anything. Or that Yahoo! Plus e-mail users get 2GB of storage or that Yahoo! Music (Launch) is the biggest music site on the net.
This does add functionality to Firefox. Now all my bookmarks that I have stored with Yahoo! can follow me anywhere I sign in with the yahoo bar. I dual boot with win xp and debian. I use both IE and Firefox in XP and only Firefox in Debian so this will make it easier to keep my bookmarks up to date across the browsers.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
Yahoo! toolbar takes two clicks to disable in IE and does not require you to uninstall it. It is not a mal/ad/spyware. Yahoo!'s anti-spy is integrated into the toolbar and nowhere else. Lastly, it also allows one to search video, local, etc without having to go to Yahoo first. All things that Google do not provide and could be beneficial to the end users.
Yet, you do what a geek elitist would do: replacing it with a tool that you consider to be better for everyone else.
You said it yourself that google is there to help the user find information whereas the yahoo toolbar is not. That is what I am challenging you on. Yahoo! too helps user find the information in addition to providing access to its services, except that you disagree thus you force your view unto others. Bravo. What's next?